Coming Around Again
by Healthcare.gov
Summary: Twice wasn't a bad guy. He never was. He had just been tossed around and forsaken more times than he could count. However, after an eye-opening conversation, Jin Bubaigawara is determined to turn his life around. Rewrite has begun as of February 1st, 2020.
1. Chapter 1: From the Top

**WHAT?! A THIRD STORY? I got impatient, and I really hopped on the My Hero Academia bandwagon, and finished the whole anime in the span of 3 days. I also read the manga to death, and am now up to date on things, and goddamn it's good. It was during this time that I found out that my favourite character in the series was the character of Twice. Being a mix of my two favourite superheroes, Deadpool from Marvel, and Rorschach from Watchmen, I just found the character of Jin "Twice" Bubaigawara really interesting (Also Meti [NotTheBadGuy] made a video about him.). Which is why I decided to write a story about him! I'm planning this one to be shorter than the other ones, clocking in at about 15 Chapters. Either way, I do hope you enjoy.**

 **I don't own any of the characters featured here, or the story of MHA. Now that I've said that, I don't have to say that ever again. Anyone who skips the first chapter is stupid and skips this warning is stupid.**

 **This story takes place AFTER the Eight Precepts of Death Arc, so a spoiler warning is in effect here. So far, it's only in the manga, so go ahead and read that first.**

* * *

Everything was going fine. Perfect, in fact. The heroes were all fighting Kai "Overhaul" Chisaki and his goons, and that gave the League of Villains the perfect backdoor getaway. Sneaking around the back of a few of the houses, Jin "Twice" Bubaigawara (by Jesus and Mary Chain, that was hard to spell), Atsuhiro "Mr. Compress" Sako, and Himiko Toga were on their way to the rendezvous point to meet up with Shigaraki and the rest of them. Eventually, they made it to a secluded intersection about four blocks away from the big battle only metres away. They looked on as punches were traded, and blows were thrown back and forth between Overhaul, and Izuku "Deku" Midoriya of UA. The punches created massive shockwaves, shaking the group where they stood.

Soon, a white van showed up, with Spinner driving. It skidded to a halt in front of the three, and out of the back emerged Dabi, who beckoned the group towards the truck.

"C'mon, let's get out of here. Our job's almost done." He said, motioning with his hand.

It was at this point that Overhaul looked their way, and gave a guttural screech of "TRAITORS!" And swooped in towards them. Toga and Compress climbed in fast, but Twice was the last one in, and was the closest to the door. As the group sped away, Overhaul landed in front of the truck and smashed a huge hole in the floor. This forced Spinner to go into a panicked drift, which jerked the whole crew to the side. This, coupled with the shockwave of Overhaul's rough landing, sent Twice tumbling out of the back of the truck, and out into the street.

He hit the ground hard, smacking his head against the hard pavement. Dazed, he could make out the reaching hand of Mr. Compress, and the yells of Dabi and Toga, saying that they had 'lost one' and 'Jin fell out'. He slowly got up, only to be forced back onto the ground in a heap by Overhaul, who smacked him with a big stone spike, which sent him flying backwards. He was thrown even farther away when Deku smashed into Overhaul at 100% power, creating a big shockwave. He hit his head on the pavement again. The last thing Jin saw before blacking out was the van driving away, with the staring faces of the League members looking out the back. He couldn't see much but he could make out Toga saying two words.

"I'm sorry."

Then there was a boom, and the world went dark.

* * *

"Ugh… my head hurtssssssssss." When Jin awoke, he was lying on what seemed to be a hospital bed. Next to him, he heard some chatter, mostly doctors talking medical stuff. However, on his other side, he saw a kid, staring out the window. Jin recognized him as Lemillion, the kid who had saved that girl Eri from Overhaul. Jin slowly sat up in his hospital bed, groaning as he felt the muscles in his back creaking, and he winced as he felt a sharp pain at the bottom of his back. When to turned back to his side, Lemillion was now facing him.

"You're awake." He said.

"Yeah."

"How's your head? Midoriya said you took a hard hit when you fell out of the back of the van." He asked.

"Still throbbing. Ugh, I feel like I'm gonna split even more so now. Thanks for asking. How're you holding up?"

"My Quirk's gone, but other than that, I have no long term injuries."

"Wait a minute… You lost your Quirk?" Jin asked, dumbfounded.

"Yep. I'm not getting it back either. It was neutralized by those Yakuza guy's darts." He responded, sadness evident in his voice, but it was a mere miniscule undertone.

"Well… I'm sorry."

"Thanks."

Raising the backrest of his hospital bed, Jin sat up. Seeing as he had nothing better to do, he decided to keep up small talk with the kid. It did take his mind off of everything after all.

"So, what's your name?" Asked Jin.

"Mirio. Mirio Togata." He responded. "You?"

"Jin. Jin Bubaigawara."

"That's a bit of a mouthful."

"Heh. I know. Well Mirio, we should get acquainted, seeing as we'll be here a while." He said, gesturing to the wounds they had. They both laughed a little bit. The two of them had a little bit of a friendly back and forth, chuckling a little at each other's jokes. They both acted like they hadn't just been critically injured, and more like old buddies. Everything was fun, until Togata brought _it_ up.

"So you're Twice, huh?" He asked.

"Yeah." Jin's voice caught a little bit. _No, don't bring_ **him** _up! Not now!_ He thought.

"I don't know why you joined up with the League of Villains, because you seem like a pretty cool guy to me. And here's your mask. We had it repaired. I heard that you go kind of mental without it." Togata said, tossing the mask over to Jin.

"… Thanks." Was all he could get out before he slipped the mask over his head, feeling a form of pseudo-ecstasy as he heard the usually loud voices in his head go quiet. Sighing, Jin continued.

"Yeah, I'm Twice. I'm a villain."

"Well you don't sound like a villain to me." Togata said. "I mean, you did work for one of the most evil organizations out there, but you don't sound like you belong with them."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"The reason why I joined, was because I just couldn't take it anymore. I couldn't take the voices, I couldn't take society, and I couldn't take life itself. The League were the only ones who accepted me for who I was, helped me overcome myself. They let me let loose. Everything I had hated about the world was funnelled through the League, and out into nothingness. I felt… at home. I could use my quirk, and not feel like I was gonna split every time."

"Well, you didn't have to join up with the villains."

"Huh?"

"Why not have joined up with a hero school, or with some other agency. They would've helped you." Said Togata thoughtfully.

"I tried, but they said my quirk was 'too devious'" Jin said with a melancholy tone.

"Well that's just dumb! You'd have to be insane to turn down someone with your skill level!" The kid exclaimed, startling some of the doctors on the other side of the room.

"Well, society is dumb sometimes, so go figure." Jin said scornfully.

"Hey, I don't know if they'll let you, but you could join with us!" Togata offered.

"No, I would love to, but no. I'd be arrested the moment I set foot on school grounds."

The two sat in silence for a little bit.

"Welp. I should get going now. Before the heroes come in and completely destroy me for the second time." He said, getting up from his hospital bed. "Do you know where they put my stuff?"

"It should be downstairs."

"Thanks, Togata."

As he turned to the door, Togata got up and stopped him.

"You don't have to run, you know?" He said.

"No, I do." Jin – no, _Twice_ – said. "It's all I can do. And it's what I will do. Thanks for the chat. I'll see you around."

"Sure. I'll… see you around. Wanna meet up at a bar sometime?"

"Sure. Thanks."

Twice walked out into the hallway, with a small grin now plastered on his face. "Mirio Togata, you're a pretty good guy." Could be heard if you were close enough.

As he left, Izuku Midoriya sped down the hallway.

"Togata! I saw Twice leave the room, as you okay? Did he attack you?" He asked frantically, his eyes in a panic.

Togata just chuckled. "I'm fine Deku. Perfectly fine." He said with a smile.

"Jin Bubaigawara, you're a pretty good guy."

"What? You sure you're okay Togata?" Asked a concerned Midoriya.

"Of course I'm fine Deku. C'mon, let's go see how little Eri is doing."

"Y-Yeah. Sure."

* * *

Downstairs, Jin grabbed his suit, his tape measurers, a holster, and an unattended pistol with a single clip of ammo and snuck out the door and out into the city. As he did, Togata's words resonated with him.

' _You don't have to run, you know?'_

 _So I won't._ Thought Jin. _I'm gonna turn this crappy life of mine around._

And so, this marks the beginning of the redemption of Jin Bubaigawara. From here on out, he truly was coming around again.

 **I hoped you enjoyed this first chapter, and if you didn't, tell me what I could do better! And before you ask, I will not be accepting any edit requests that tell me to "delete this" or "kill myself." Anyways, expect more of this spinoff stuff from me more in the future, and I will continue to work on my big projects. Thanks for reading, and have an amazingly wonderful rest of your life!**


	2. Chapter 2: Hopes Up, Smack Down

**Since I need to get this out, and I love the concept so much, here it is. The next chapter to Coming Around Again. I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

Somehow, Jin Bubaigawara had managed to sneak his way across town without being detected by the heroes and cops making their daily rounds.

 _Feh. "Heroes."_ Thought Jin bitterly. _They're obviously not doing their job right (doing it very well) when people like me dot the streets of the poor sectors._

He slunk back to his ratty apartment and started to contemplate his life. It may sound very deep, but he just plopped on his couch, turned up a heavy rap mixtape, lit a cigarette, and just thought. He thought about the meaning in Mirio's words. He thought about the choices he had made to get to this point in his life. He had hurt others, he had killed others, he had stolen, sabotaged, and pretty much broken more laws then there are fat people in North Korea. In his time on this mortal coil, he had done nothing good in his life. Wallowing in his own self-pity and guilt with another cigarette, he turned on the TV. Five more deaths on the news, stories of "Overhaul Defeated!" and "Yakuza Lord Dethroned!", and another cheesy story of how a couple of heroes found love and married. How happy (how utterly depressing).

"How am I gonna do this?" He asked himself. "I can't do anything right (I'm the greatest at everything), and I'm pretty sure my own Mother would shove me away right now (She'd hug me so much). I'm just another brick in the wall. And as a villain, I'm just gonna end up arrested or lying in a pool of my own blood someday." He continued despondently, then looked down at the pack of cigarettes in his hands.

"Or I'm gonna die of lung cancer before all of that. Might as well start somewhere." He said with distain and chucked the cigarettes out the window before walking outside for his late-afternoon stroll.

* * *

While walking around, he took in the sights of the city at rush hour. Everyone was starting to get off work, and the streets were bustling with activity. Jin was just another one of these faces, blending in perfectly, even with his scar across his forehead. All things considered, a scar across one's face was pretty normal with people with snake tails and horns walking by and whatnot. Tucked in his pocket was his mask and concealed beneath his sleeves were his tape measurers. He always felt a little more at ease with his gadgets at his side. The ratty part of downtown where he lived was always a little crazy, no matter where you went. Jamming his hands in his pockets and fidgeting a little bit, he walked over to the convenience store. Even badass criminals need to eat. However, on the way over he heard a sound. Was it… shrieking? It was coming from a cliché back alleyway.

 _Oh, crap._ He thought. _What's happening now._

He snuck down the alley, turned a few corners, and found the source of the sound. There was a woman, who had absolutely no business being here, and a group of thugs who probably lived here considering the tents strung up around the area. The woman was on the ground, her belongings strewn around her, and there was some blood on her. She was obviously very distraught. Tugging the mask over his face, Jin was about to leap into action, but then caught himself. If he was caught with the mask on, he'd probably get the cops called on him by everybody, plus he'd break about 15 laws just by activating his quirk. He could do this quirkless but fighting them all while mentally unstable and under the constraints of the law would be a challenge (Eh, not that hard.) He could just call the cops, but they wouldn't get here in time and when they did, he would be arrested. Same thing for the heroes as well, who also don't patrol this area of town that often anyways. After weighing the ups and downs of the situation, and watching the thugs stand menacingly over the poor woman, he decided to just wing it (I HAVE A PLAN!) He disabled the safety lock on his tape measurers and used them to swing around the corner and plant his feet into one of the offender's face.

"I'M NOT COPYING SPIDER-MAN! (BUT I TOOK INSPIRATION FROM HIM!)"

The other gangsters looked at him shock before one of them rushed Jin with a Tire Iron. Quickly batting away the heavy-handed blow, Twice swept up from underneath the man and threw a hard uppercut into his chin, knocking him out cold. The other thugs snapped out of their trances and rushed forwards, weapons raised.

 _Wham, Bam, Shangalang. (And a shalalalalala yeah)_

Three down. There were now only 4 thugs left in the alleyway. Out of desperation, one of them activated his quirk, which was some form of conjuration or telekinesis, as a brick of stone flew out of his hands and straight towards Jin, who promptly sliced the brick in half with one of his tape measurers. He then used his weapon to slice the closest thug multiple times, creating light lacerations and cuts across his body. He then knocked the poor fellow out with a roundhouse kick to the temple. Three left. Lunging towards the next one, he redirected his trajectory and used inertia to slam into him. A flurry of blows knocked the man to the ground. Two more. The first was dispatched with a fast jab to the face followed by a cheap shot to the gut and final attack of having his head slammed into a brick wall. The second was more problematic. He was constantly throwing ranged attacks at Twice, who was forced to bob and weave between all of the incoming projectiles. The rocks and bricks flew at a pace comparable to that of a pistol and it wasn't giving Jin any room to breathe. Taking one of his tape measurers, he used it to wrap it around one of the thrown projectiles and he spun it around and around, eventually releasing it on a trajectory for the gangster's face.

 _Smack._

"Nailed it."

He went down hard. All in all, the whole encounter lasted about 3 minutes. Not too shabby, but a bit slow for Jin. He then turned his attention to the woman, who had huddled in the corner. Walking over to her, she looked at him cautiously, and widened her eyes when she realized who he was. Seeing the evident fear in her eyes, Twice just sighed and began to walk off in the opposite direction, before he was stopped by the woman. She simply put a hand on his shoulder and said in a soft voice: "Thank you. Thank you so much."

 _Crap! How do I respond to this? I usually just walk off!_ He thought, before thinking that playing it cool would be fine. Burying the raising quaver in his voice, he turned to face the woman.

"No problem at all ma'am. Are you alright?" He responded.

"I am now, thanks to you. You should get going before the cops show up. I'll call them. And don't worry, I won't say anything about you being here." She said, and for the first time in a while, Jin saw a genuine smile on someone's face. Not an insane grin on villainy, or a forced one, but a genuine smile of happiness. This was enough to put a small grin on his face.

"I'd appreciate that. Stay safe, alright?"

"I will. Thank you once again."

"You're very welcome."

Throwing his tape measurer end into the air and onto the roof, he swung up onto the rooftops and away from the scene of the crime with a deep feeling of real satisfaction. Free-running across the roofs of the various buildings around him, he could see everything as the sun began to dip beneath the horizon. The police cars making their way to where he once was, most likely responding to the call of the woman he had just saved. The hustle and bustle of the city's night owls walking up and down the streets.

 _I did it!_ He thought triumphantly. _I proved today that I could do something good. (I'm a bad boy.)_

So, for the first time in ages, Jin "Twice" Bubaigawara got a good night's worth of sound sleep. Things were finally looking up.

 **You guys/girls/non-binary gender folks really enjoyed the last chapter, so I hope you enjoyed this one. I got some really nice response from one of you, so thank you! I'll take your advice to heart, and I already have a plan for some of it. Other than that, I don't have anything else to say. Thanks for reading!**


	3. Chapter 3: Good In Some Aspects

**Alright, time for this one. I really enjoy writing this story, although the updates for this are a bit too far apart. I don't want to drag this on too long, so here's the chapter.**

* * *

As the weeks went by, the red-lights district of the city began to open up with rumors of a masked vigilante appearing in erratic places and busting drug deals and stopping robberies, along with the major takedowns of several big gangs. Word has it that this guy used to be a hero or villain, but none of these theories had been confirmed. However, in the case of one Mirio Togata, he understood everything that was happening. As he sat on the small couch against the wall in his room and watching the TV, he saw a story of how yet _another_ drug lord at been taken down in a vicious bust performed by the mysterious vigilante.

"Heh." He chuckled to himself. "Nice one, Jin."

Meanwhile, Jin "Twice" Bubaigawara was perched on his new favourite spot at the corner of Wao and Honyaku, hidden from view on the roof of an overly tall apartment building. Around 15 stories high. He looked out on the familiar terrain that had been his "hunting grounds" for the last few weeks. He grinned as he surveyed the district. He had made quite the splash when he first beat up those crooks. So much of a splash, that a small-time website had even sprung up, categorizing and following his every move.

 _I've got a fanbase._ He mused silently, checking the magazine on his stolen pistol. _I just have to hope they're enthusiasts and not murderous stalkers._

Sliding his pistol on its now familiar spot on his waist and undoing the safety guards on his tape-measurers, he pulled on his mask and sat in for his long wait.

Nothing much happened that night. There was a robbery, but Jin put it down quite fast. He sunk into his ratty couch, trying not to take in the heavy scent of abject poverty in the air around his house. Good guy or not, he was still dirt poor, and while the local shopkeepers were nice and everything he got was usually mad cheap, he was still living below the poverty line with most of the population in the area. And with the current demographics of his life being 50% vigilante work, 25% sleep, and 25% moping about his financial situation, he decided that he could maybe pencil in at least 10% for a part-time job.

He searched the internet for a little bit and found a nice offering as an internfor a hero agency. It paid well, the hours were on an "On-Call" basis, meaning he only needed to come in to help if there was a serious emergency, and he would get money even on the off hours for simply being on the payroll. That was a win-win for him. He gets to be nice AND gets paid for it! Plus, he still gets that much needed 25% of sleep! Score! _If only the author of this story could have that type of sleep schedule._ Then, he hesitated. Like it or not, apparently the late Sir Nighteye had picked up on his identity, and while they never found his location (Jin had been smart and covered everything up with a web of pseudonyms and fake IDs), waltzing into a pro-hero office as wanted man Jin Bubaigawara wouldn't be the smartest decision. On the flip side, he could be crazy honest and pull some cheesy speech out of his ass. But that usually only works in movies, just like the hotwiring and the gunfights, and unfortunately, moral codes. What a life. Screw it, he was out of ideas. _Let's check this place out…_

* * *

Standing in front of the hero office, Jin took in a deep breath and took out his earphones that were playing the most soothing types of classical music he could find.

"This is gonna suck. (Be really amazing!) I'm gonna get arrested for this. (I'll walk away with a job and a scot-free criminal record!)." He mumbled, his 'other side' chipping in, giving him a little spark of optimism that quickly faded out as he walked into the foyer of the building. It wasn't much. Just a low-key office building. The job posting did say that this was very much a "new development." Sitting at the desk was an overworked office worker. He glanced up from what was on his computer (most likely hentai) and looked right at Jin.

"Hello, welcome. How may I help you?" He said in a dejected voice, ready to return to his hentai after a painstaking second away from the screen.

"Um, I'm here for the hero internship interview with your boss. We had an appointment for this time today, right?" He tentatively put forward. From here on out, he would have to choose his words carefully.

"Ah, right. She should be in her office, doing paperwork or whatever. Just knock and she'll let you in." He said in a deadpan voice before turning back to his computer screen. Sighing, Jin took the stairs up to the boss's office. As he was about to knock, he heard voices from inside.

"Well, I can't help it if you end up crushing 17 cars every time you go out to work! It's your fault and not mine!" Came one exasperated voice, which Jin recognized as Shinji Nishiya or Kamui Woods. _Damn, the current No. 7 Hero._ Though Jin. _If I mess this up, I'm boned (gonna be fine)._

Then came another voice. "But I can't help it! I get big, but I can't do anything about it! If anything, it's your fault for not catching me when I fall!" Came the voice. It was female and was very whiny and was followed by Shinji's "What!?"

Jin decided that knocking now would probably stop the horrible confrontation. There were 5 raps on the door in quick succession, alerting the two heroes to the man behind the door. Sighing, the female shouted, "Come in!"

And in walked Jin. Inside the room was Kamui Woods in his hero costume, and a young blonde woman in street clothes leaning back in a chair. "Hi. I'm Jin Bubaigawara and I-" Before he could finish his sentence, Shinji wrapped his wooden arms around him a threw him onto a chair.

"I know you! You're Twice from the League of Villains!" He exclaimed.

"Well at least let me finish my sentence asshat!" Jin angrily barked back before resuming his sentence. "AS I WAS SAYING, I'm Jin Bubaigawara, formerly in the employ of the League of Villains and I'm here for the Hero Internship. There, I said it. Can you loosen up on the roots now?" Twice got out before the snakes of wood around him tightened. "Are you deaf or something? Loose. E. IT MEANS NOT TIGHT! ACK!"

Shinji sighed. "Yu? What do we do with him." He asked the woman on the other side of a desk.

"I say we hear him out." The woman, now revealed to named "Yu" calmly replied. "The League isn't stupid enough to send one of their current operatives under his real name to the doorstep of a hero office."

"See? The lady believes m- AGH!" The roots tightened again.

"That doesn't mean that you're cleared of suspicion. Why did you want this job?" Yu asked, malice creeping into the edges of her voice.

"I don't want to leave the villain life anymore! I've been trying to do something good with my life! It may be cheesy but it's true. I really want to make a difference." Jin choked out.

"And I believe you on that, but why should we let you join us? What will you bring to the table? You have to prove to us that you have what it takes to be an actual hero and not just someone who beats people up." Yu asked, her stiff expression starting to fade and a slight grin tugging the edge of her mouth.

"Um… well… you want the full list or the abridged version?" He asked with a shaky smile.

"Give me the important stuff. Shinji, you can release him now." She ordered, with Shinji behind him retracting his wooden bindings.

"I have 5 Online Ph. Ds in Neuroscience, Biology, Engineering, Physics, and Astronomy." He began.

"Wait, Online Ph. Ds? Is that even a thing?" Asked Shinji.

"Yeah, I just attended through online lectures. I eventually was able to take the test and I got the Ph.D. They aren't real because I can't actually foot the bill of University Tuition, but I have the mental capacity required to get one." Jin answered. It was true. He had too much free time and he needed to flex his brain muscles from time to time.

"Ok. Continue." Shinji said, to which Jin nodded.

"I can play a lot of musical instruments. Any guitar-type instruments, drums, violin, piano, etc., you get the idea." He continued.

"That many? How?" Asked Yu.

"When you're shunned (totally accepted) from society and lock yourself inside for about 16 hours a day, you have a lot of free time on your hands." He answered in his smooth voice, though a bit of anger slipped in through gritted teeth.

"Ah. I see." Responded Yu, her expression softening a little bit.

"I can also cook really well apparently. Again, being a shut-in with nothing to do makes you really good at some stuff. I have the reflexes of a master Martial Artist due to me practicing endlessly on a torn punching bag hanging the bag of my apartment, as well as taking online lessons. And I also got some formal training from Shigaraki and his goons later down the line, but that was only a year ago at most. I know basic firearms handling, basic melee weapons handling, 7 types of Martial Arts (Thanks to Shigaraki), and if this helps, a total memorization of every single song by Nirvana, plus Lose Yourself by Eminem. That's the important stuff." He finished.

Yu just shook her shocked expression off her face and replaced it with a smirk. "Well congratulations Jin Bubaigawara, welcome to the team."

"Thanks, boss. Good to hear." He casually replied, returning the smirk. "What should I call you? Calling you 'boss' every time would get weird."

"I'm Yu Takeyama but call me by my hero name. Mt. Lady." She said coolly. It was obvious that she had been practicing this. Shinji face-palmed at her vain attempt to 'be cool.' So, Jin replied in the only way he knew how. The long-lost language of _the asshole,_ otherwise known as _snark._

"Oh right, you're the one who knocked over 5 buildings last time you used your Quirk! I know you!" He said while Shinji began to chuckle behind him and Yu started to shake in anger.

"You're treading on thin ice here pal." She growled, causing both Jin and Shinji to leap backward and out the door as Yu gave a primal screech.

"AH HELL!"

"RUN!"

"GET BACK HERE YOU PITIFUL EXCUSES FOR MEN! AAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHH!"

* * *

 **And that's a wrap. I'll add a battle scene in the next chapter I swear! I really like writing this story, but I have another fic I'm consistently updating and even after unofficially throwing my JoJo fic on the backburner I still don't have enough free time to update this one. That's a ØMEGA LEVEL ØØF in my book. Also, I want to point out that Jin did swipe a pistol at the beginning of the story in case you forgot.**

 **Another thing I want to say is that I use a song list to listen to while I write certain characters. It helps me get into the mood, and also makes for some pretty good listening. This is the one I use for Jin.**

 **Morph – By Twenty One Pilots.**

 **Kiss The Misfits – By Felix Hagan and the Family**

 **Icky Thump – By The White Stripes**

 **Town Called Malice – By The Jam**

 **Take Me Out – By Franz Ferdinand**

 **Sad. – By Bo Burnham**

 **And that's all I got for now. It'll probably grow soon. Thanks for reading and best wishes!**


	4. Chapter 4: The Jester

**Alright, time for another one of these. In the last Chapter, our man Jin Bubaigawara gets himself a job with Mt. Lady Hero Services! He's running with some good people now, but what's next? I really don't know where I'm going with this intro, so I'll just give you the chapter now. Enjoy.**

* * *

It had been a week since Jin had been picked up by Mt. Lady and her team. And by team, it was really just him, Mt. Lady herself, Kamui Woods, the Secretary, and Edgeshot, the No. 4 Hero who had been out restocking the company fridge while Jin was doing his interview. Death Arms dropped by every now and then, but he had his other work. Everyone was a little wary of Jin when he had first joined but were starting to loosen up a little and soon got used to the former villain roaming the office. As he was still an intern, he was usually sitting in the common area where everybody sat while waiting for jobs. He still did his vigilante work, as that took up a lot of his time, but the rest of his free time was dominated by his new job. It was actually quite enjoyable spending his time with his new colleagues. However, he soon discovered three things to watch out for.

1: Never ask Kamui Woods about his face. He always has it covered up by a bandana when out of costume. Jin tried asking once. Once.

2: Everybody had their own dedicated spot on the couch. Never sit anywhere else, or on someone's seat.

3: Never EVER joke about Mt. Lady's damage bills for the month, past, present, or future. Otherwise, her damage bill grows exponentially, and you also get a bill. For hospital admission.

Jin learned all of this the hard way. Despite all of this, they all got along nicely, trust was formed, and Jin proved himself to be a valuable resource for the group of heroes. He already had three successful official solved cases under his belt. Today, he was gunning for a fourth. He was currently situated on a rooftop with Kamui Woods. It was 9 o'clock on a Saturday, and the two masked men were looking over a shadowed area of the city. Nights on weekends was the prime time for crime.

"A bunch of sketchy guys over here Shinji." Jin pointed out, his eyes trained on a group of men in dark clothing.

"I see them. On their way over to the theatre, right?" Kamui responded.

"No, there's a bunch of them lurking towards the general store," Jin said. "Shit."

"More walking to the apartment along the junction between 67th and Dogwood too. As well as an armoured car. Make that two. What the hell? There's so many of them. This can't be a coincidence." Shinji muttered under his breath. Securing his face mask, he stood up.

"I got the ones heading to the theatre. You got the ones at the general store. We'll meet up at the apartment building." He said, the vines and roots on his arms writhing around as he flexed them.

"Copy that." Said Jin, undoing the safeties on his tape measurers and securing his pistol.

"Remember, hands and knees only," Kamui said, glancing at the sidearm that Twice had strapped to his waist.

"And feet?"

"And feet. Good luck, Jin." And with that, the Hero of Arbour jumped off the rooftop and into the cityscape bbelow.

* * *

in jumped off in the opposite direction, making his way over to the general store. The men were all wearing dark clothing, and several appeared to have weapons tucked into their clothing. Several hammers, some baseball bats, one guy had a 9-Iron golf club, a lot of switchblades, and even a screwdriver. Some had revolvers and small arms, evident by the bulges and abnormal wrinkles in their pants and pockets. Tailing them from an overlooking rooftop, the apparent gangsters strolled into the shops in the vicinity of the general store. They all operated in groups of 4 or 5. Suddenly, there were crashes and screams as people streamed out of the doorways of the shops, leaving the bad guys to their own malicious devices. Jin ran into the first one and saw a bunch of the guys grabbing cash out of the register. One of them looked up at Jin and snarled.

"Boys, we have a _hero._ " He sneered, as he grabbed a revolver from his waistband. The four other thieves pulled weapons out and readied quirks as well. One seemed to have a fire-based quirk, much like Dabi's, and another had one that seemed to manipulate air, as an aura of shimmering gas appeared around his fist. The first man charged forwards, hefting a tire iron over his head and bringing it down with startling force. Twice hopped back a little bit, before leaping back and shoving his fist into the guy's face, and a second arm appeared out of his shoulder and smashed into the enemy's head before turning into goop and falling to the floor. Twice smirked as the thug was thrown to the side because of the blow. Grunting, the one with the fire quirk threw a ball of flame towards our hero, who created a clone of his hand, that caught and defused the ball of heat before melting into another pile of goop on the floor. He then proceeded to get right into the crook's face and beat him down with a series of powerful attacks. One of the remaining three hefted a baseball bat and swung downwards at Twice, who grabbed one end of his tape measurer and pulled it out, using the thin strip of metal like a trip wire. He then proceeded to pull it up in front of his face, where the bat connected with it… and was sliced in half. The confused crook was soon lying on the floor, a steady stream of blood flowing from his broken nose.

The last of the quirk users threw a hard straight at Jin, who dodged it and watched as a ripple of air was jettisoned from the fist and blew a dent in the wall behind him. He made sure to knock this guy out fast with a knee to the genitalia and roundhouse kick to the temple. All that was left was the gunman. He brought his pistol to bear and was about to fire when Jin faded back and created a clone. A clone of himself. The bullet impacted into Clone Twice's forehead and caused him to diffuse and splatter into a pile of slime. The real Twice then kneed the gunman in _his_ forehead. The rest of the enemies in this area were simple to take down. A bunch of goofs and a few that could pose a threat. However, they were all quickly dispatched. What was troubling, was the sheer amount of them. They were there in droves, and all seemed to be working together. What was even more unsettling was the badge they all had in their back pockets. It was an emblem of a dove being struck with several arrows and sinking into a bloodstained pool. On the bottom was the text "From a great height."

Frowning, Twice pocketed the badge and made his way over to the apartment building. When he got there, Kamui Woods had already started. Whips of wood lashed out against the goons, throwing them back. Two more armoured cars pulled up to the road beside the apartment building, and hooded men with Riot Shields spilled out, each one carrying a handgun. They surrounded Shinji, who grimaced under his mask. Throwing his quirk into overdrive, tendrils of wood erupted from his arms and back, striking every enemy that tried to get close. In the meantime, he spoke into his ear piece.

"There's a lot of shielded enemies here, I need some backup here, Yu!" He hissed, falling into a fighting stance and attacking one of the shield carriers, knocking the thug off of his feet and into a trash can.

"Don't worry, I'm on my way. Edgeshot is coming in from downtown too." Came Mt. Lady's voice over the intercom. Kamui just grunted in acknowledgement and jumped forwards and knocked an opponent off balance and slid under his off-centre shield before delivering a harsh uppercut to the thug's chin, sending him sprawling to the ground. He spun around and used his whip-form arm to throw a few of the goons off balance before kicking one hard in the gut. The man doubled over and before he could recover, was kicked to the ground. The fight had spilled out onto the streets, and there were unconscious thugs lying strewn across the street. Kamui could see how far the bodies went. There were so many of these gangsters that he had lost track of how many he had beaten down. He could see more armoured vehicles down the street and tensed up for another big fight. That's when Twice intervened.

Jumping down from the rooftops, he landed on the van in the front and pulled out his handgun. In his hand, he imagined a 12 round 9mm magazine in his hand, and it appeared out of the palm of his hand. Loading it into the pistol, he hung off the edge of the car and fired directly into the driver's cabin, striking the driver in the hand. The man driving yelped in pain and the vehicle swerved off to the side and into at lamppost. Jumping off the wreckage, Jin fired the rest of the clip at the second car, decorating the bulletproof windshield with a spiderweb of cracks, ensuring that the visibility inside the cabin was near-zero. He then held out his hand.

 _A C3A1 Type 67 Landmine. A diameter of 51 mm, a height of 76 mm, and a weight of 80 grams. a payload of 9.45 g of Composition A5 filling. Operating pressure of 7.25 kg._

The landmine formed in his hand, and he quickly armed it and threw it onto the ground. These were anti-personnel mines, so just one wouldn't cut it, so he made more. He set them up in a line and threw one of his steel tape measurers up to loop around a street lamp and pulled himself up. He just stood and watched as the blinded vehicle drove right over his cluster of landmines and watched with a sadistically satisfied look in his eyes as the area beneath the van lit up in a large orange fireball. The truck was lifted off the ground a little and ground to a halt, the underside of the armoured car scorched and wrecked, and placed it out of commission.

"I love it when they light up the place." He said absent-mindedly to himself. "Ugh, but they're so loud and bright. I hate 'em."

Falling to the ground, and landing with a soft thump, he made his way over to his teammate.

"Any idea what they want with an apartment building?" Twice asked, releasing the magazine from his pistol, which turned into a pile of goop as the spent pistol mag hit the ground before forming and loading a new one.

"No clue. Backup's coming though. Yu's on her way and Edgeshot is as well." Shinji said, stretching his legs.

"Wait a minute… since when were you on a first name basis with Mt. Lady?" Jin asked, a smirk forming underneath his mask.

"Well, what does it matter? We call each other by our first names." He shot back, a little taken aback.

"Well, we're both guys and we're colleagues. Plus, calling me 'Bubaigawara' is a bit of a mouthful, don't you think? 'Hey Bubaigawara, look out!' By then I'm already dead. But between a man and a woman, this means sparks are flying bud." Twice said smugly, his asshole levels shooting through the roof. Shinji just facepalmed. Within a few minutes, the other members of the team reached the apartment complex.

Edgeshot and Mt. Lady were fairly impressed with the work their two co-workers had done, but the day was far from over. Knowing that her quirk was absolutely useless inside, Mt. Lady elected to stay outside, while Edgeshot went in first, using his Foldabody quirk to quietly reconnoitre the area. Soon, the trio crept inside, ready for anything. What they found inside wasn't anything they had prepared for. There was nothing. Absolutely nothing. No signs of furniture, no signs of any form of human activity. They kept moving, floor by floor until they reached the penthouse. Inside was a man in dark robes, staring out the window. On his back was the same emblem that Twice found on the badges.

"Ah. It is good to see that you finally made it." He said in a slow, yet light voice. He did not show his face and kept his back to the three. "Number 4, Number 8, and the ex-villain. Oh, this should be fun!" His voice went up an octave at that excited outburst.

"Hopefully you'll be better than the last ones I killed."

The room went dark, and the group circled up. Surrounding them was the whirring of machinery. Out of the shadows emerged a group of… amalgamations for lack of a better term. They were all made out of bits and pieces of things. Everything from lightbulbs to the kitchen sink. Red lights were glowing from what Jin could only assume were their 'eyes' and several dripping wet tentacles hung limply from their sides. Kamui Woods sunk into his fighting stance while Edgeshot flexed his muscles, his arms moving with him by folding in and out. Jin just pulled out his pistol and let one of his tape measurers unravel, the metallic end hitting the floor with a clunk.

"What's the plan here fellas?" He asked, raising his pistol.

"Survive." Was all that Edgeshot said as the amalgams closed in.

The heroes got the first shots off, as Jin took down 2 of them with well-placed pistol shots into the joints and red-dot 'eyes' before grabbing the end of his tape measurer and bisecting another one, sending one half crumbling to the floor. As they were defeated, the amalgams just dissolved into the items they were made out of. Kamui Woods was able to use his whip arms to great effect here, knocking several of the monsters back if not outright destroying them. Edgeshot was by far the most effective here, as his Foldabody quirk let him shoot into and through several amalgams at a time while mitigating any chance of counterattack from the unwieldy golems. Jin just kept firing, the muzzle flashes of his pistol lighting up the dark room with dazzling bursts as amalgams crumbled before him. The only problem was that there were a ton of them. More and more appeared out of what seemed to be nowhere. One emerged from the dark and attempted to smash Kamui's head in, but Edgeshot had him covered and drop-kicked it back, knocking it towards Jin who promptly severed the monster's 'head'. The heroes were definitely putting up a good fight, but they weren't going to last.

"There's too many of them!" Yelled Kamui Woods in frustration as he shot an arbour spear through a line of enemies.

"Go for the cloaked one! You cut off the snake's head, then the rest of the body dies!" Jin responded. Edgeshot, knowing that this would be the correct course of action, folded himself into a thin, red line and shot forwards at the cloaked man, still facing away from them. As the hero jetted towards him, the man raised his hand and snapped. A metal fist swung out of the darkness and smashed into Edgeshot's body, slamming him to the ground.

"S-Shit!" Yelled Jin, running over to cover his fallen teammate. The cloaked man held up his fist as he turned around. He was wearing a jester's mask, except it was cleanly divided into two, with one half smiling and the other half in a frown, a single black tear dropping down the side of its face. The masked man tilted his head to the side a little bit, before making a fist with, then swinging, his right arm. Raising his arms in a futile guard, he was met with a giant metallic fist that blasted him into the wall. He gave a hard grunt of pain as he felt his bones breaking. If they didn't do something, they were completely done for. Struggling to his feet, Twice stood up.

 _Dammit! I'm not gonna let it end here!_ He thought, throwing a hard hook with his right and jabbing with his left and breaking another amalgam to bits. _IT'S NOT OVER!_

He jumped back into the fray, throwing kicks and punches every which way. Multiple more amalgams fell beneath him as he continued his carnage. One tried to attack him from behind, but he materialized a leg from his back to push-kick it away, sending it flying into a group of other enemies. However, he did not notice a smaller amalgam with a knife attacked to its hand. It had weaved its way through and around its comrades and jumped up and stabbed Twice in the ribs. He gave a pained gasp as the knife entered his side. He staggered backwards a little bit while shoving the midget amalgam back, the blade still embedded in his side. Touching the knife handle, he was about to pull it out when he remembered that the knife was his only current effective plug to stop the blood loss. Instead, he formed a knife in his hand with his Double quirk and proceeded to stab an enemy in the 'eye' before one slammed into him from the front. Pinning the tired Twice to the ground, it clamped down on his wrist, crushing both the tape measurer and his wrist beneath the immense weight. The brute amalgam raised its fist, ready for the final blow, when a red streak shot straight through the monster. Edgeshot cleanly bisected the enemy with a well-placed Foldabody shot but quickly lost his strength afterwards and fell out of his folded form and into a heap on the floor.

Kamui Woods wasn't handling things to well and was soon forced over to where Jin and Edgeshot were. Despite his extreme combat prowess, he was soon overpowered and forced to the ground. Using his good arm, Jin formed another knife to promptly stab and defeat the amalgams bearing down on his friend. The three were soon pushed back into the middle of the room.

"Can't we call for Mt. Lady?" Asked Twice.

"No. Her quirk is completely useless in a situation like this." Came Kamui's reply.

"Then we're completely screwed, but we'll be fine." Twice muttered, his 'other half' leaking into his speech patterns.

"Not yet." Came Edgeshot's reply. He pointed to the window. Zooming towards them was a pink blur, with ginormous wings and large horns.

"GET DOWN!"

You didn't have to tell Jin twice. He threw himself out of the way quickly, as did Kamui Woods and Edgeshot. The pink blur shot straight through the penthouse, taking off the roof and most of the walls. When the dust settled, the masked man was gone, and all the amalgams were destroyed.

"Ryukyu, how nice of you to show up." Said Edgeshot, slowly getting to his feet. However, Ryukyu wasn't finished. She reverted back into her human form and proceeded to sweep Twice's legs out from under him, before putting him into a submission.

"OW! What was th- YOWCH! Easy there! It's already broken but perfectly fine! AGH!" He yelped.

"What is this bastard doing here?" She snarled. It all clicked for Twice. She hadn't been informed of his change in alliance. As for as she knew, he was still one of the bad guys.

"Relax Ryukyu. He's working with us now." Said Kamui Woods as he walked over to help a very pained Jin.

"What was with the wait? You could've called her off, y'know, before she shredded my arm!" Twice exclaimed.

"That was for the dating joke." He said coolly, with a humorous tone suggest that he was smirking under his mask.

"I really don't like you, but you're also really fucking cool." Twice spat out as Kamui helped him to his feet.

"Same here bud." Came the response. They both chuckled a little bit. Edgeshot even let loose a couple trench giggles. However, despite the joking, they all knew that if Ryukyu hadn't shown up, then they all couldn't have died. One thing was certain. They were out of their depth.


	5. Chapter 5: A Short Test

**I really enjoyed making the last chapter so I'm hoping that this one will be good. On to the chapter.**

* * *

Apparently, the only think keeping Jin awake was adrenaline, so the moment he left the building, he hit the ground like a sack of bricks. He woke up in the hospital swathed in bandages with a broken jaw from hitting the ground too hard. Of course, he tried to complain in his usual asshole style, but couldn't because his jaw was broken. The other members of the team enjoyed this silence while it lasted. His arm was in a cast, and they had basically strapped him to the bed because he had so many broken bones. The doctors said it was a miracle that he had survived as long as he had. The knife in his side certainly didn't help. So, Jin spent the next month sitting in a hospital bed, unable to do anything and was only able to speak after the third week. Before that, he was being tube-fed. He mostly scowled under the bandages and watched TV. After a month of sitting in bed and attempted police interrogations which only ended in one outcome: A bunch of muffled swears and a middle finger, Jin was finally released from the hospital.

"I never want to do that ever again." He said, stretching his legs for the first time in a few weeks. It also felt good to be wearing a t-shirt instead of a hospital gown.

"That's why we're going where we're going." Said Shinji, in the driver's seat. They were currently rolling along the highway, 2 hours after Jin's release. Jin was riding in the backseat with Edgeshot, while Mt. Lady was riding shotgun, yet not driving, like the leader she was.

"Well, where is it?" Twice asked.

"No need to answer. We're here." Came the reply, as the pulled up in front of U.A. Academy.

Jin didn't know how to react, so he made a combination of a double take, retching, and falling back into Edgeshot, who promptly pushed him off.

"You do realize this is equivalent of hell for me, right?"

"It'll be alright. Yu, you _did_ tell everyone that Twice was with us, right?" Shinji responded.

"Hehehe… _about that._ " A nervous chuckle. Oh no.

"Dear God, what do you mean, 'about that?' They're gonna rip him apart!" Came the exasperated response from Shinji. "You know what? We're just going to the support room and to the conference room and then we're done."

The group quickly made their way across school grounds, dodging clusters of students and made their way over to the support department, and Power Loader's office.

The hero Power Loader was U.A.'s resident tech expert and the head of the Support Department, much like how All Might handles the Heroics Department. He often spent time in his lab, working either on side projects or on orders filled out by pro-heroes wishing to alter their costumes. However, he had been focusing on this latest batch of orders from Mt. Lady's team. However, the most intriguing of these orders were for "Twice" who had ordered some upgrades for his current equipment. He had learned that Twice was a villain defector and all that, so that was fine. What was asked from him was the most interesting thing. Placing the finished suit on the table, Power Loader sat back and took a deep breath. This was something nice. Something REAL nice.

The group of heroes walked into the lab. Power Loader was sitting in his swivelling chair, drinking a cup of coffee.

"Ah, you're here." Came the gruff voice. Getting up from his seat, he walked up to greet the team. Quickly showing them to the showcase room, he ran through everything the new and improved costumes had to offer.

"Since your run-in with those villains, you need some serious upgrades. That's what I've been doing." He said, walking them down the hall and into a room. Inside was a long glass wall. Power Loader hit a switch on the wall, lighting up the area behind the glass. It was a stark white tunnel.

"Your old suits were all made of this." He gestured to a mannequin wearing a skin-tight jumpsuit made of the old material that the heroes' old costumes were made out of. He then pressed a button, and turrets appeared out of the walls. The mannequin moved down the glass tunnel and was subjected to a turret of punishment. Bullets, flames, explosions, anything that Power Loader could throw at it, including a kitchen sink, was thrown at it. In the end, all that was left was a small shred of cloth. Everyone's jaw hit the floor.

"At least there's a shred left…" Jin joked when the shred of fabric was sprayed with a jet of flame.

"Never mind."

"See? Now, this is what I made your new costumes out of." Power Loader continued.

Another mannequin rolled out. This time, the bodysuit held up much better, reaching the end with only a few scratches and burn marks.

"It's a special weave of Titanium Mesh and Kevlar strong enough to block bullets, while also being cut resistant. It also has the flexibility of your old suits. It also has a self-sealing rubber layer, so wounds will close up if the openings are small enough. They also have a flame-resistant coating that should protect against smaller burns. Overall, a much more protective and durable material." He finished.

"That's why we're here. So that we don't get our asses thrashed like last time. Better gear, better fights." Said Mt. Lady. "All out suits are in the next room, right?"

"Yep. Go on in and try them out. Twice, I wanna show you yours personally. I'm proud of this one." Power Loader led Jin over to a table in the back. While everyone else was grabbing their suits, Power Loader gave Jin his personally. The moment he lay his eyes on it, his jaw threatened to drop to the ground and brake again.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Put it on."

* * *

Stepping out onto the training field was a new, revamped, Twice. Clad in his new reinforced costume, he now looked like, as he said in his own words, a bona fide licenced ass-kicker. The core areas of his costume were all patched with thicker material, which was stylized in a deep, matte black. The rest of his suit was gray and were decorated with white stripes. However, the most outstanding piece of kit was his gauntlets. Attached to his forearms, the gauntlets had a matte black finish with an industrial feel to it. A thick, black plate covered the top. There also appeared to be a barrel protruding from the front. They were attached to his new gloves, which had a little touch pad on the side of the pointer fingers.

"See those touch pads? Press 'em." Said Power Loader. Jin did as he was asked, and at his touch, two whip-blades extended from his gauntlets. Looking at his new weapons in awe, Jin pressed the button again, and they retracted.

"Now press 'em twice."

Tapping the pads two times in quick succession, the blades extended and then hardened into these 2-ft long blades.

"Goddamn…" He said, whistling. He soon found out he could adjust the blade's length up to 5-ft and could be shrunk down to 4-inches. With a quick tutorial from Power Loader, the heroes were let loose onto the training bots that the academy had for practice purposes. Jin leapt up to the robot and slashed it diagonally with one of his blades. He cut it cleanly in half.

"These blades were inspired by the Indian Pata sword. It was created with power in mind. Instead of generating power in the wrists, the Pata uses the entire arm to deal damage." Power Loader had said.

Ducking to the side, Jin avoided an attack from another bot. This time, he swung one of the blades in whip form towards the target, constricting it. Jerking on the weapon, Jin pulled the robot closer to him, and right into his other blade. He let the broken enemy fall off his blade and then proceeded to spin around and bisect another one. At this point, he realized he had been surrounded, as more and more training bots entered the arena. But Twice was prepared for this. Inside his right gauntlet was his remaining tape measurer. Pointing at the wall, he flicked his wrist back, and the end of the tape measurer shot out at a blazing fast speed, burying itself in the concrete wall of the arena. He then used it as a grappling hook, pulling himself up to the wall while leaving a little surprise for the remaining adversaries. In his off hand, a hand grenade appeared and with a single deft move, Jin pulled the pin and dropped it.

A cacophony of booms echoed as each robot combusted from the immense stress put on their reactors from the grenade. Jin dropped back to the ground. Looking satisfied with his handiwork. That's when the next wave arrived. A wave of gunners. They all carried automatic rifles set in their arms. Jin couldn't take these guys without any form of ranged combat. But he did. The barrel in the front of the gauntlets extended at his command, and he pointed them at the enemy, and he began firing.

"These gauntlets are designed around your quirk of Double. These firing chambers are made to accept single bullets instead of full magazines, so, therefore, it is to be used in conjuncture with your quirk." Explained the hero, handing Jin two bullets. One was the 9mm armour-piercing variant that he was familiar with. The other appeared to be some sort of shotgun shell, the casing an electric blue and adorned with a little white lightning bolt. "That shell is a newly developed Shock Shell that we designed here at the R&D division. It has the full capabilities of a taser but having the explosive power of a shotgun shell. The barrels can take both types of ammunition."

Back in the battle, Jin had swapped over to the AP Bullets and was firing away. A volley of lead struck the cluster of robots, who fell to the floor spewing oil and sparks. Behind him, more melee bots started to rush him, to which he responded with several electric blue blasts. The high-concentration of energy knocked the enemies to their knees, defeating them in a matter of seconds. One last one charged through the bodies of its fallen comrades. Showing no mercy, Twice cleanly bisected his sole adversary, swinging his blade down at an angle. The two halves of the robot hit the ground with a loud crunch.

"Final Wave." Came the calm voice of the Arena's Robotic Announcer. At that line of speech, the doors on the far side of the training field opened up and out walked a line of at least 50 robots. Of course, this was probably just a fraction of the enemies that could be defeated by the likes of great heroes like All Might, Endeavor, and Hawks, but Jin wasn't any of them in terms of raw power or prowess. Instead, he opted for a final ranged attack. Out of his shoulders emerged two other arms, which in turn clones their own arms until Jin had 5 sets of arms, each with their own set of gauntlets. The adaptive chambering of the weapons kicked in as Twice fired volley after volley of AP rounds right into the oncoming wave. They all twisted strangely as their metal chassis caught the bullets and hit the ground. They were all gunned down in a few mere seconds. With the deed done, the spare arms Jin had cloned melted off his body and fell into familiar puddles of goop that soon dissipated. He gave out a triumphant cry and started singing a version of Queen's _We Are the Champions_ by cloning his own head and having them sing all together. He even cloned a piano and guitar for himself, as he considered himself proficient in them. The other heroes looked on in amusement as Jin did his victory rituals. Just another day on the job.

* * *

 **The Conference Room, U.A. Proper.**

After getting changed, the group had made their way over to the actual U.A. Building Conference Room. Sitting the meeting room when Jin walked in were the U.A. Faculty. All Might sat at the head of the table, with his colleagues Midnight, Cementoss, Snipe, Present Mic, Thirteen, and Ectoplasm, along with Principal Nezu. Sitting at the table as well, was the hero Ryukyu, who had helped them at the end of the battle. They all looked up at the door as the group of heroes walked in. Power Loader led them in, before taking a seat at the table, leaving the interviewees standing along the wall with a TV mounted on it. Everyone tensed up when Jin entered the room, but soon all relaxed when there were no sudden movements from the former villain.

"Tell us, what happened that night?" Asked Midnight, who got straight to the point. Her tone was stern and non-whimsical, a total betrayal of the tone her costume set. Just by the infliction of her voice, it could be discerned that she demanded total compliance.

"Well, Twice and I was on patrol out in the red-light district on the lookout for any possible villain activity. We were camped out on top of a building when We spotted the group of enemies making their way towards the targeted locations." Kamui Woods began but was quickly silenced by Midnight.

"No. I want to hear it from the so-called 'turncoat'. Tell me, what happened during that encounter?" She said, her voice deep and menacing. While Jin was terrified of her, he kept his straight tone and spoke with clear conviction.

"Well, when we spotted the enemies, Kamui and I split towards the two smaller attack sites. I defended the general store and shopping district, while Kamui took the cinema. We both took care of our respective threats and made our way to the apartment building where the fight took place. Kamui had gotten there first, so all I had to do was clean up the stragglers. From there, Edgeshot and Mt. Lady arrived and we all entered the building. There was absolutely nothing inside. Not even flecks of dust. When we got to the penthouse, there was a man in dark robes. He had a jester's mask on and he was just standing there like a weirdo." He started, his teammates nodding along with him.

"Yes, we received the badge that you had grabbed." Said Snipe, holding up a photo of the badge. "It matches the description for the symbol of a criminal syndicate, bordering on a cult, called The Drowners. They're a bunch of anarchists that originated from the remains of large gangs like the Mafia. The man you encountered is one of the leaders of a local chapter here in Japan."

"Well, what's the motive? They always have a reason, right?" Asked Jin.

"We don't really know. They've always been focused on taking down heroes and destabilizing the human populace as a whole, but it's rare to see a leader doing the work." Said Snipe, leafing through a thin folder. "There we go. This one is called Masque. He's the head of all Drowners in Japan and is one of the higher ranked chapter leaders. He has a 'hero kill list' of approximately 200 and many more law enforcement personnel and civilians. His quirk is Amalgamate, which lets him collect any number of items and control them at will as long as they have structure. Each separate Golem has its own inside structure. He can also control one of them personally, but only a single construct at a time. That's the extent of our info on him." The hero finished, unconsciously stroking the handle of his revolver as a nervous habit.

The heroes all shared stern glances. These guys were bad news.

"So, they must be a pretty big deal then. There's a whole lot of them out there, and we don't even know the motive." Said Shinji, looking at the floor and shifting his feet. Mt. Lady put a reassuring hand on his shoulder and he relaxed a little bit.

"Long story short, there's a whole lot of villains out there made up of high-level villains and thugs alike all ready to pull the trigger on us." Mt. Lady said, to the solemn nods of the U.A. Academy staff.

"The worst part of all of this is that we can't even strike back. If the police make a move, then the public will have to be notified as per the law, which would throw the civilians into a panic with the knowledge of a criminal cult on the streets, and we can't hold a full-on quirk attack without any major collateral damage." Said a skeletal All Might, who had remained silent the whole time. Jin was a little taken aback, seeing the former No. 1 Hero looking this lethargic. That's when he remembered that he was one of the ones who had forced him into this state. Before he could say anything else, Edgeshot threw in his own two-cents.

"Plus, they're extremely dangerous. One slip is all it would take for everything to come crashing down. We almost died in there, and that was only one man. Imagine what it would be like facing one of their higher-ranked officers." He said. The weight of the situation was too heavy, even for their shoulders. There was a humongous threat they had uncovered, yet they could not act lest innocent lives are lost or terrible retribution be dealt. The Drowners were an international organization and they could only sit and wait for their next move. Desperate to lighten up the mood before everything all went to shit, Jin tried to speak up.

"Well, in spite of all of that, how about we just go and grab some dinner? Let's come back and look at this situation with fresh eyes? Y'know, like civilized people instead of ghosts?" He managed to get out without interference from his vocal tic. Everyone around the room chuckled a little bit.

"I agree, we're all too uptight about this. We may be in a bad place as of right now, but we shouldn't dwell on it too much." Said All Might, standing up and making his way over to the door. "Let's get a meal, shall we? It's on me."

The whole room grumbled with an agreement. They all climbed into one of the Academy's vans and drove out to some smaller restaurant that All Might apparently frequented a lot in his off hours. The drive was a little awkward, but everyone managed to make light small talk with each other. Jin was content to just stare out the window while fiddling with a spare bullet casing. As long as the other heroes in the car didn't kill him, he was perfectly fine with sitting alone. He rubbed his wrist that had been broken a month earlier. He had let it sink in that he had almost died that night and sheer adrenaline was what had kept him kicking. If Ryukyu hadn't shown up he would have been just another name on Masque's kill list. He decided not to dwell on it for now and got out of the car as the crew reached their destination. The shop owner greeted All Might with a familiar grin and waved the heroes into a booth in the back of the restaurant. Jin just ordered what he wanted and was done with it. Any interaction with these guys ended up being extremely awkward considering that he had punched a few of them with the intent of harm. When he saw All Might go up to pay, he figured that this was as good a place to start. He walked up and instead footed the bill for everyone before All Might could even take the money out of his wallet. Jin dumped out the contents of his wallet onto the counter and then left without a word, saying that he "needed to get home."

He stepped out of the restaurant and found that the sun had already dipped under the horizon. He shoved his hands into his pockets and walked back home in the crisp night. He had some digging to do. Who were these 'Drowners?' What did they want? That's when he heard a boom. A very loud boom. He looked up as a large building started to come crashing down, followed by another one, and another one. There was screaming, and everything was enveloped in shades of orange. Fireballs erupted in seemingly random places. Knowing that this was definitely something that he would have to help with, Twice slipped his mask over his head. Helping a man to his feet and pointing him in the other direction, Twice peered through the smoke and flames. Men in dark cloaks were walking around, throwing balls of fire around as if they were dodgeballs. He could only watch as the balls enveloped escaping civilians, their screams echoing into the night. In unison, the cloaked men chanted a single phrase.

"From a great height."


	6. Chapter 6: With Fire and Fury

**Greetings from 35,000 feet above sea level! Here's the next chapter of our story! I hope that you enjoy it! I am typing this out on an iPad so forgive me if anything is messed up. Anyways, on to the chapter.**

* * *

Jin stood in the middle of the street in a bit of a daze as explodes rang out around him. His ears were ringing, and his vision was blurred as he vaguely felt his body being thrown back several feet. The hard impact of the concrete snapped him out of his stupor as he heard the roaring of the flames. Getting back onto his feet, his vision began to come back into focus. He grabbed his mask from his pocket and slipped it on, his mental state began to stabilize as he felt an icy calmness wash over his psyche. Steeling his resolve, Twice sprinted back into the inferno. Inside were the same hooded men, their hands smoking from the fireballs they had hurled. Leaping forwards, he slammed his knee into the first one and his eyes widened in surprise when the man's head snapped back in an unnatural manner.

That's not supposed to happen (yet definitely normal), Jin thought. The human neck isn't supposed to be as weak as that was. Kneeling down, Jin felt for a pulse but didn't find one. However, the dead giveaway was that the body's skin as cold, which wasn't a characteristic of a fresh corpse, but rather an aged cadaver. At least this makes them easier to take down! I don't have to hold back!

He turned on his heel and kicked another zombie, for lack of a better term, in the stomach. He felt the familiar squishing feeling of organs collapsing. He then sprung up like a grasshopper, placing a high kick into the walking corpse's face. With one threat dealt with, he spun around just in time to see the remaining enemies raise their arms, energy collecting the in palms of their hands. Bringing his hands out in front of him, Twice formed a riot shield in to block the projectiles while he moved backwards. However, the zombies, or whoever was controlling them, was smart and had them form a staggered firing line. The bolts of flame came in two volleys, the first one vaporized the riot shield, and the second volley sailed straight towards Jin. He rolled out of the way fast as the lethal balls of heat struck the area where he was standing only moments before. The shockwave shook Twice to the bone, his teeth rattling. Wanting to bring an end to this quick, he used his quirk to craft an AK-47 rifle along with a magazine of ammo. Taking a knee, he fired a quick burst into one of them, the weapon buckling in his hands and the enemy hitting the floor with a thud. He proceeded to put the other ones down too. As he walked over, he was surprised to see some of them fade into dust as their bodies began to crumble away.

This is definitely the work of an enemy quirk. Jin deduced as he shouldered his rifle and kept moving. Luckily, they appeared to be the last of them as no other enemies turned up. Walking back over to the dissolving bodies, all that was left were a few flecks of dust and the heavy grey cloaks that they wore. On the back was the design of the Drowners, the same bleeding dove staring at the sky. Letting out a breath he didn't know he had been holding in, he grabbed the tattered piece of cloth and began to make his way back to his co-workers. As the smoke cleared, Jin took in the scope of the damage. Several buildings had collapsed, and the road was an absolute disaster with large craters blown out of it. There were some charred clumps on the floor. Jin could only assume the worst. Slinging his AK-47 over his shoulder, Twice clambered over the rubble. The good thing was that the destruction had been confined to this area of the city and it looked like no other attacks had occurred. As he was about to try and find Kamui and the others, he heard a whimpering coming from within the rubble. Quickly making his way over to the source of the noise, he found that it was emanating from beneath a slab of concrete. Using his quirk to make a shaped charge, he quickly blasted out a chunk of the rubble. Inside there were a few surprised gasps and what appeared to be sobs. Peering in, Jin was met with the sight of several school children and their unconscious teacher. A few were crying on the floor and most of them had some bloody scrapes on them. One of them turned to face Jin. She appeared to be in the 3rd grade.

"A-Are you a villain? Are you here to h-hurt us?" She asked with a quivering lip. The other kids looked up at Twice with fear. One even grabbed a piece of rebar and stood in front of their teacher. Twice smiled a little bit behind his mask at the young child's bravery. In response, he lifted the rest of the concrete slab and pushed it over to the side where it landed with a hard crunch. He tentatively offered his hand.

"Relax." He said in his calmest voice, suppressing his vocal tic as he removed his mask. "I'm here to help." The little girl looked at his hand, then up at Jin, then back to his hand. With great trepidation, she reached out and grabbed it. That's when Jin sensed a presence behind him. Whipping his head around, he let go of the little girl's hand and set her back into the hole.

"Stay here and stay calm. I'll be back." He said with a smile while putting his mask back on. Grabbing the stock of his AK-47, he pulled it into his waiting arms and switched the safety off. Shouldering the rifle, he saw that standing in front of him was a big, hulking man. He wore a dark bodysuit with a plague doctor's mask.

"Rappa," Jin greeted. "It's nice to see you." It really wasn't.

"Drop the niceties Bubaigawara." The big man said with an imposing voice. "Your betrayal got me arrested." Rappa got ready for his signature shoulder charge. Oh no.

"Look, can we take this somewhere else? I would much prefer it if we didn't do it here, or at least can we settle this later? It's really not the best time, bud." Jin said, shifting his grip on his rifle.

"Bah! Fine. I have other people I need to beat up anyways. Like those friggin' Drowners." Rappa angrily growled, turning around. "We'll have this some other time Twice. So watch your back... Before I break it." And with that, the hulking yakuza tromped away.

"By Jesus and Mary Chain, I hate that guy so much." Jin grumbled, slipping his rifle back onto his back. He climbed back down into the hole. "Alright, he's gone. You can all come out now. Help your classmates, I'll grab your teacher."

* * *

The kids began to clamber out of the pit of rubble, the stronger ones helping the weaker ones climb out, while Twice picked up the unconscious teacher and leaped out. The kids started to cheer as Jin landed on the ground next to them. He couldn't keep a smile from invading his face. Giving them all a slight nod, he began to lead them back to where he had left the other heroes. When he got back out onto the road, emergency services were already on the scene, police and firefighters were working on damage control, and paramedics had already put together a makeshift triage and a morgue. Jin hoped this teacher wouldn't end up in the latter. He guided the kids over to the paramedics' tent and dropped the teacher off there as well. The medics wanted to take a look at him too but he declined. Luckily, his comrades had come rushing at the first sign of trouble.

"Yo." Was Jin's simple greeting when the other heroes arrived at the scene. He was sitting on a piece of rubble, holding an ice pack to a bruise on his forehead. He gave his usual cocky grin and shot the heroes a couple of finger guns before landing on the ground next to them.

"What happened here?" Asked Midnight, who was surveying the damage.

"The Drowners launched another attack." Responded Jin. "I know it sounds ludicrous, but there were a bunch of walking corpses with fire quirks that were carrying out the attack. It was probably the work of another one of their officers."

There were some nods from the heroes. Next to speak was All Might.

"So you still have no motive?" He asked. His skeletal body tensed up like a coiled spring. Jin just shook his head in confirmation. As of now, there was no clear objective from this mysterious group. They just attacked. They had no signs of activity before all of this. At the end of the day, they were left with more questions than answers. Giving a resigned sigh, Jin returned the ice pack and slipped his mask back on.

"I don't care what any of you think, but I'm gonna get to the bottom of this shit. Whoever's behind all of this wants a lot of people dead, and I'm gonna find out why." He said, conviction returning to his voice

All Might looked like he wanted to object, but the former hero was interrupted by Cementoss.

"Don't. It's a fool's errand and it will get you killed. You saw what they were capable of." He warned. Jin shook his head.

"I already told you that I don't give a damn. I'm heading back to the school. If any of you want to help, you can come along (or you can bug off)." And with that, he turned around and walked off. Kamui got his feet.

"Jin's right, we can't sit on our asses and not do something while these attacks continue." The other members of his team nodded. The U.A. Staff were not as pleased though.

"You may continue this investigation, but please note that U.A. will not be sanctioning this case." Midnight said. "Our involvement will paint a bigger target on our backs then we probably already have. I am not willing to risk my students in a wild goose chase for a ghost organization that has proved its lethality."

"But you could work with us and bring them down faster! Who knows how many lives we'll be putting in danger by doing nothing. We have do act now!" Exclaimed Mt. Lady.

"As I've said, you may continue with this case, but know that you won't be receiving any assistance from U.A. or any of us. In fact, don't even bother asking anyone else. I don't think anyone would be willing to join you in a suicide mission. But as I said, I will not be risking my students or my colleagues." Midnight said coldly. Mt. Lady opened her mouth to retort, but Kamui stopped her.

"Drop it Yu, come on, let's head back to the office. We can let the cowards do their own thing." He said, venom lining the edges of his voice. He looked over to Edgeshot, who nodded. Casting one more look at the U.A. Staff, they turned around and left after Jin.

* * *

 **Later.**

Back at base, the four heroes sat on the single couch of the common room. A detailed map of the city was laid out on a coffee table. They were all in their street clothes. Getting right to the point, Kamui drew a little circle over two locations.

"This is where the Drowners attacked us." He said, pointing to the first circle. It was over an apartment building next to a park. "And this is where Jin encountered them."

He then gestured to a circle right over a work district, about 2km from U.A.

"Now what do these two places have in common? Easy. They are both places where heroes frequently patrol. One place near a low-income zone, and another right next to a school for heroes." He finished, capping the pen and tossing it on the table.

"That means they're actively seeking out heroes to kill." Mt. Lady finished, to which Kamui nodded.

"And they're trying to cause as much damage as possible while they're at it as well." Added Jin.

"This still doesn't give us any clues as to their motives. They could just be a big group of hero hunters and not want anything else, or could be your run-of-the-mill terrorist group." Said Edgeshot, as he took a sip of a cup of tea.

"Yeah, but now we know where they'll most likely attack, which is good because now we can actually try to predict where they're gonna turn up next," Jin said with optimism. Standing up, he began to grab his things. "We'll meet up again and well plan our next move, but now, I need to get some sleep. I'll see you all later."

Kamui nodded. "See you later, Jin." The rest of the team waved. Smirking, Jin gave his own wave and walked out the door. Shoving a pair of earbuds in his ears, he walked down the darkened street. However, he wasn't paying attention to what was happening and apparently someone else wasn't either. As he turned a corner, someone slammed into him, knocking him off of his feet.

"Yow! Watch where you're going, y-" He began before he stopped. On the floor in front of him was a girl in a schoolgirl uniform. In her hand was a non-characteristic blood-stained knife. She stared at him, and he stared right into the eyes of Himiko Toga. His co-worker. His friend.

"Jin?"

"Toga?"

* * *

 **And that's a wrap. Thanks for reading! Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to get off the plane now, so I'll see you all later**.

 **I'm back home now, and I can finally upload this. The FanFiction app was killing itself 69 times.**


	7. Chapter 7: New Plans

Sitting up, Jin was about to give the clumsy schoolgirl in front of him a good talking to before he realized who it was. Sitting in front of him, in all her awkward, bloody, sadistic glory, was Himiko Toga. Jin's old friend. His first friend. In her hand was a blood-stained knife, and there were vials of blood attached to her belt by the dozen. It appeared she had just returned from a plentiful harvest session. What was different was that her normal sadistic grin was replaced with a shock expression.

"J-Jin? Is that you?" She asked, her voice quavering a little bit. That should be expected since most people would be a little distressed at the sight of a friend who they thought was lost for several months. Jin didn't know what to say. A lot had happened. Where would he start? He didn't need to speak, however, as Toga got up and grabbed Jin's arm, pulling him away.

"E-Eh? Toga? What are yo- AGH!" Jin tried to say, but the hyped-up Toga wasn't having any of it, pulling the poor ex-villain along with her. Dashing down the streets, Toga led the dazed Twice through the concrete jungle and down into the sewers. After about ten minutes of running, they reached a thick steel door. Looking up at her old friend, Toga gave Jin a big hug.

"You made it! I was so worried after you fell out of the truck. Everyone was so sad when you disappeared. Shigaraki was about to kill someone! Well, more so than usual, but still! You're here!" Said exclaimed, before wrapping the stunned man in another hug. "C'mon, everyone will be so happy to find out that you're alive!"

"Toga, wait. I need to talk with y- WHOOP!" Jin tried to reason with her again, but alas, to no avail. Pushing open the door, Toga led Jin into a surprisingly clean facility. Of course. This was Shigaraki we were talking about.

"Oi! Toga, what's with all the commotion?" Asked a familiar voice, as Mr. Compress rounded the corner, before realizing why there was such a commotion.

"Jin! Good to see you made it out buddy!" He said, slapping his former colleague on the back.

"Y-Yeah, thanks." Jin managed to get out. This was gonna be awkward. There wasn't much he could do apart from going along with it. Follow his former colleagues, he was led into a back room. On the way, he passed a lot of armoured men. This was very unsettling as he knew for a fact that Shigaraki liked smaller operations for their stealth potential and ability to deal damage faster rather than having a large, unwieldy task force. That's why the vanguard squad was so small, and why Shigaraki didn't bother to recruit others, even after they lost Mustard, Muscular, and Moonfish. Walking inside, he found Shigaraki, who expected to be inside, but there was another man. He wore a tattered black cloak and wore a mask. The mask was like that of a gas mask, but an older one that looked to be modelled after ones found in the World War One era.

"Ah, Jin. It's good to see you alive and well. I've heard talks on the streets that you were around." Shigaraki said, perhaps a bit too nicely. "I would like to introduce you our new associate. He goes by Nihilus and is our newest liaison our new allies.

"The lord of death. Charming." Jin commented. Nihilus turned to face Jin, his eyes obscured by the fogged-up lenses of his mask. He just stared right at Jin. Somewhat disturbing, but Jin could live with it. His thumbs moved unconsciously to the activation triggers for the blades on his gauntlets. Running one of his hands through his hair nervously, he looked over at Shigaraki.

"So, what's the deal with Mother War over here?" He asked, masking the quaver in his voice with an air of smoothness and a jabbing pop-culture reference.

"Nihilus is one of the lieutenants of the local chapter of a group of quirk terrorists named the Drowners. I assume you've heard of them?" Shigaraki said, all too calm considering who was next to them. Jin mentally cursed several times. He fought the all too real urge to bolt and instead decided to keep the conversation going.

"Those guys? Yeah, I've heard of them. They're pretty big (really small. I've never heard of them)." He replied. Shigaraki nodded slowly. Jin tensed. Pulling out his phone and looking at the time, he quickly fibbed a line to get himself out of there.

"Alright, Shigaraki old bud, I have to get home now. So, I'm gonna bounce now." He managed to get out without any obscuring from his vocal tic. That's when Nihilus suddenly appeared behind him, in front of the exit. He still made no noise.

"You see, Jin. Apparently, we've gotten word that you've been… compromising some of the Drowners' operations. Even working with some heroes to mess up some of Nihilus' plans. Is this true?" Shigaraki pressed, standing up. Jin could see him flexing his hands. Toga and Mr. Compress looks a bit taken aback, but there was nothing he could do about them. Best thing to do now was…

"HEY LOOK, IT'S ALL MIGHT!" He screamed, pointing at behind the villains and taking off down the hallways after socking Nihilus in the face. It didn't faze the Drowner lieutenant, as he raised his hand, and a group of corpses burst out of a back room. Pointing at the direction where Jin had gone. Compress and Toga didn't do anything but stand there. Shigaraki shook his head and started after the rogue Twice. After a few moments of silence, Compress finally spoke up.

"Did he actually think we would fall for that?"

Running like hell, Jin sped down the hallway. His footfalls felt faster and faster with each step as the constant pitter-patter of his feet hit the concrete filled the corridors. Other voices could be heard. Mostly orders from squad leaders directing their cronies to close off the exits. Switching off the safeties off of the firing mechanisms on his gauntlets. Using his quirk, he quickly formed one of Power Loader's shock shells and subsequently loaded them into the chamber. Rounding several corners and navigating a few junctions, he reached doors he had entered through. Standing guard was a group of thugs, armed to the teeth. All of them were suited up In Kevlar vests and some even had full-on riot gear. However, Jin took notice of a critical flaw. They were all wearing earpieces, and earpieces had copper wiring in them. Raising his arms and forming two more sets of gauntlet-clad appendages with his Doubling, he fired a salvo of shocker rounds in a six-barreled fusillade. The electric current was soon transferred into the conductive copper in the enemies' earpieces, overloading the devices, and frying the thugs in the process. Smashing through the doors and slipping his mask on, Jin practically flew for the exit. Looking behind him, he was surprised to find several of Nihilus' abominations on his tail. _Damn, they're fast. But they're also crazy slow!_ His mind was kicking into overdrive. He didn't bother trying to suppress the other voices. In the blink of an eye, another group of corpses appeared in front of him. Not bothering to slow down, Twice lashed out with a quick slash of one of his blades, which was able to decapitate of the monsters, but the rushed nature of the attack was evident in the action, as the blade harmlessly whiffed passed the others.

Doubling one of his arms, he had the third arm fire at the steadily encroaching monsters behind him. Accuracy was low, but he didn't care. Whatever slowed them down, he could work with it. Ahead of him was the ladder that he and Toga had used to get into the sewers. Luckily for him, the manhole cover was still ajar. The only problem? They had taken another route to the hideout from the ladder, so there was a giant pit in between the two sewer junctions. It was a classic catch-22. Either he plummets to his death or gets burned and torn apart by zombies. Attempting to jump the reservoir would make him an easy target as well, as Twice was constricted by the confines of Newton's First Law: If he jumped, he would just be travelling in a straight line unless he was acted upon by another force. And this wasn't some action movie where all the goons would just miss. In this situation, he was like a stick of TNT lit from both ends. One way or another, there was no easy out. Hearing the familiar _fwoosh_ of fireballs being primed, Jin made his decision. Dropping satchel charges behind him, he made a mad dash for the pit. He needed everything to work out. The lethal range of the shockwaves for these specific charges was about 5 metres, or about an estimated 16 feet if Jin did the math right. At full stride, Jin would cover about 2-4 feet per footfall, so he needed an average of 5-7 full sprint steps to reach the outer-rim of the lethal radius. Running as fast as he could, he counted his steps.

1…

2…

3…

4…

5…

6…

As he picked up his foot for the last step, Jin pushed the trigger on the detonator. This was now a dead man's switch. The moment his finger left the trigger the whole thing would go up in flames. _7…_ releasing the pressure on the button, he felt the heat wash over his back as the shockwave and loud boom resonated through the urban catacombs. Jumping over the edge and spinning around as he did, Jin saw the large fireball blooming behind him, right before the blazing pillar shot right out of the tunnel he was just in. Twisting his body, Jin shot out his tape measurer and felt a satisfying tug as the impromptu grappling hook found purchase. Reeling it in, he flung himself up and onto the wall. Planting his feet on the horizontal surface, he pushed off with all his might. He shot the measurer up to the ceiling and swung himself towards the exit junction, performing a couple flips before landing safely on the other side.

 _Let's just face it, I'm pretty much copying Spider-Man at this point._

Without so much as a second thought, Twice scrambled up the ladder and out of the sewers, back into the world above.

* * *

 **Back at the Office.**

A tired, panting Jin pulled off his mask as he shouldered open the door to the common room. Sitting on the couch was his colleague, Kamui Woods. Looking up from his drink, Shinji immediately ran over to help the exhausted Jin.

"What happened? You look like you just leaped into a dumpster fire." He said, setting his friend down on one of the several fold-out chairs scattered around the room. One of the rules of the common room was that you had to have a clean uniform before sitting on the couch, so everyone would always use the chairs after missions. Anyone who soils the couch would face the wrath of Mt. Lady, and no one wants that.

"I actually jumped out of a _sewer_ fire, thank you very much." Jin shot back, taking a sip of a cup of water that Shinji handed him. Frowning, Shinji plopped into the chair next to him.

"So, what were you doing?" He asked, shooting Twice an apprehensive look. Jin sighed.

"I was found by Toga from the League of Villains." He started. "She led me back to their hideout as she didn't know about my 'side-job' to report back to Shigaraki. Of course, Shigaraki being Shigaraki, already knew about everything. On top of all of this, he's working with the Drowners now so that's fun. Long story short, the most dangerous quirk terrorists in Japan are now working with one of the largest international crime syndicates in the world, complete with a private army, and we still have no motive!" With that, he flung the empty cup across the room. Shinji just shook his head.

"And no backup to speak of." He finished, to Jin's solemn nod. "So, if we weren't screwed then, we are truly and completely _dead._ " The weight of the situation sunk in. They were truly on a war path that lead only to death. What were they to do? Four heroes against an army? There was nothing else they could do. If they played their cards right, they would still have a very slim chance of even making a dent in the enemy's forces. Standing up, Jin gathered his things.

"Wanna grab a drink?"

"Sure."

So, the two co-workers walked out the door after a crazy day at the office.

* * *

 **At the Bar.**

Sitting a little booth off to the back, Jin and Shinji took intermittent sips of their drinks while they discussed several topics at hand. They tried their hardest to take their minds off of the looming threat, and instead focused on plain male banter. They had some funny talks about the current state of the sports teams they followed, a lengthy tirade on this anomaly known as 'Fanfiction' and they eventually settled on a lasting topic. Shinji's love life.

"So… have you and the boss 'teamed up' yet?" Jin asked, a shit-eating grin plastered over his face as he leaned across the table. Shinji face-palmed but stayed silent.

"C'mon! You can't deny it!" Jin pressed. Giving in slightly, Shinji's iron-strong will still held out. He took another nervous sip of his drink. Jin still pressed his offensive. After a good hour of on and off banter about it, Shinji gave in.

"Fine. I'm gonna ask her out next week." He relented, letting out a sigh and taking a deep sip from his drink. Jin started loudly celebrating, saying that the day was upon them or something like that. Shinji kept drinking.

"Dude, you got this! This is gonna be the best tag-team ever!" Jin exclaimed, slamming his now-empty mug down onto the table. Jin started on his next tirade, going on about how 'he could see it all.' Something about 2 kids and a nice house in a countryside town next to a lake.

"Wel,l I'm definitely not inviting you to the wedding then." Shinji muttered under his breath, drinking some more. Finally coming down from his high, Jin sat back down.

"Wel,l it's obvious what I have to do now. You need a wingman, Shinji. I'll get you that perfect relationship, man! It'll fail! C'mon, this'll be great, and completely horrible!" Jin said. The beer was starting to get to him. His vocal tic was shining through. Knowing there was no winning this, Shinji went along with it.

"Fine, then what do you propose, Jin? What do I have to do to get a woman like her?" He asked.

"Easy. We're superheroes, right? You've got to be like All Might in the streets, but you've gotta be like All For One in the sheets, if you know what I mean." Jin said, his cocky grin growing bigger as Shinji did a spit take.

"Are you kidding me? I swear, I'm not getting laid on the first date." He muttered.

"But you're saying you would like to? If you play your cards right, this could become a reality." Jin teased. Shinji gave him the finger. Running a and through his hair, he started to laugh a bunch before he finally stopped, and his expression turned serious.

"You know I'm just teasing you, right?" Shinji looked up. "I want this to thing to work out between you two, especially if we're going against the Drowners. It's obvious that respect and friendship is there, you just have to take that leap of faith. I want you two to be happy. The reality of this job is that we could die at any given moment, but hey. You should at least get the chance to not die single." He said. Shinji chuckled a little bit, both out of respect and disbelief that his friend had actually said something as serious as that.

"Hehe. Thanks, buddy."

"No problem. Now let's go get your girl."

Setting their mugs down and paying the tab, the two heroes left the bar and walked out into the crisp city night, or morning, depending on how you looked at it. They had been out the entire night between the daytime attack on the city, to Jin's late-night escapades, and now this little bit of wind-down time.

"Alright, I'll be seeing you then." Jin said, shaking his colleague's hand. Shinji returned it with a nod. So, the two parted ways, ready now for another event that was sure to come soon.

* * *

 **Probably my most productive day to date. Finished this chapter in three days. I wanted to have a bit of action, but also get a little bit of chill stuff in there. Thanks a lot for reading, and have an amazing rest of the new year.**

 **Also watch Spider-Man: Into The Spider-verse, and listen to Jordan Thornquest. Do both those things and become a massive legend.**


	8. Chapter 8: Out Of The Blue

**I know it's been a while, but I took a little break from this story for good reason! For both this and my other major story, The Praesidium Initiative, I went on break to do some research for my fight scenes. At the core of both of these stories, they are both action stories. While it is critical, the plot is secondary to me in contrast to the fight scenes that make up the backbone of these works. I want to make my fights seem more than what's needed. I want you to feel like you can visualize every movement, yet still ground it in some amount of reality. That's what I aim to accomplish with my fight scenes, so I decided to look at how other works carry this out. I went to Banana Fish with its excellent bar fight scene (great show by the way), I went to games like Mirror's Edge and Titanfall 2 to see how they handled fast movement while mixing it with fun combat, and I came back around to My Hero Academia to see how the show and manga worked with super powers and more specifically, the nuances of Jin's quirk.**

 **I hope you can all forgive me for slacking on this. This update has been a long time coming, so here you have it.**

* * *

 **U.A. High School - School Culture Festival**

After a few days of hectic terrorist chasing, for once, Jin was glad to have patrol duty. Seeing as there was a large concentration of civilians on site, all hands were on deck for this one. Jin was currently with the pro-hero Death Arms and an exasperated Shinji, as they watched Mt. Lady, their boss, use her… "charms" to get herself a free serving of whatever food she wanted. It somehow worked, causing the three heroes to subsequently face-palm.

"Using her looks to get free food. As a pro-hero no less. How shameless." Death Arms remarked.

"Oh trust me, this isn't the first time Yu's pulled this." Shinji groaned, causing Jin to chuckle. The Drowners were always at the forefront of their minds, so a bit of mindless banter was appreciated. Shuffling over to Shinji, Jin nudged him in the elbow a couple of times.

"So, when are you gonna strike, Casanova?" He said with a smirk.

"Really? Now isn't the time, Jin. We're on active duty right now." Shinji muttered in response. It was pretty much common knowledge to all the guys that Shinji had the hots for Mt. Lady, but he never had the guts (or the time, for that matter) to ask her out. So Jin figured that it was time for them to get his act together, and do the thing. They had recently recruited Death Arms to help with the endeavour as well. Of course, they would have to wait until after they got off of this shift to ask, but it was a start. So the team spent the shift walking around the school grounds and admiring the student's handiwork. There was a beauty contest that was happening soon, along with a concert and a play. Jin found himself attracted to the concert, but thoughts on that would have to wait. _I wonder if I'll see Mirio here._

That single thought dominated Jin's mind for the time he was here. The man who had convinced him to turn his life around and work for the protection of others. If anything, Jin just wanted to say thank you. Mirio had been responsible for almost everything he was doing now. But work always came first. Snapping back to reality from his thoughts, he sat down on a bench with Shinji, and the two heroes discussed a couple of unconnected things while Death Arms kept up with the patrol and Mt. Lady used the facilities to expel all the copious amounts of fast food she had consumed. Chatting like they usually did, the two of them let out a long hard laugh when there was a rustling noise coming from the bushes behind them. Normally they wouldn't be concerned with stuff like that, but when it was accompanied by the sounds of battle, this was big.

"Security Breach?"

"Security Breach." Nodding, Jin grabbed his phone and sent a quick message to one of the comms officers on security duty before running off with Shinji to follow the source of the sounds. Removing the safeties on his gauntlets, he felt a twinge of satisfaction as the blades clicked into place at a moderate length of 5 inches. Running next to him, Kamui Woods let his powers of Arbor flow through him as vine-like appendages grew from roots along the sides of his arms. He also took this time to activate his new gadget, the Kamui Carver. What it did was it employed sets of moulds to allow Kamui to create tools out of his reinforced wood that could be detached painlessly from his body, or used as is in place of his hands. It ranged from weapons like blades and tonfa sticks to utilities like hammers, screwdrivers, and the like. Feeding his power through the gauntlet-like gadget, a pair of reinforced wooden batons emerged from the openings at the end. Moving behind a copse of trees, the duo peered into the clearing where the fight was occurring.

A boy with scruffy forest-green hair was engaged in open-quirk combat with a man sporting an extravagant blonde hairstyle with a mustache and goatee to match. Both were bouncing around at fast speeds, with the boy jumping off of trees and the mustached-man using what appeared to be shimmering pillows of air. Right off the bat, Jin could recognize both fighters. One was Izuku "Deku" Midoriya, one of the sidekicks who had participated in the Yakuza sting, and the other was one he only knew as the internet phenomenon known as "The Gentle Criminal." This guy was no joke, using his elaborate quirk to pull off big publicity stunts and daring moves. Being the troublemaker that he was, he had been on Jin's hitlist for a while, both as a vigilante and a pro, but he was always fairly low as there were bigger fish to fry. But now, it looks like the guy had made the next big step into villainy, attempting to breach the school grounds of U.A. Jin and Kamui both winced as Gentle leaped off of his air bubble at an awkward angle, throwing off Deku just enough so he could land a hard haymaker on the boy, sending him sprawling to the ground. Having analyzed his fighting style, Jin had come up with a quick way to deal with him.

"Hey, let's do the thing." He said, looking over at Kamui.

"Which one?"

"I go high and around, you got low and forward."

"Oh, THAT one."

And with that, they sprung into action, enacting their plan.

* * *

Laying on the ground Izuku Midoriya was truly gassed. He had enough trouble trying to match Gentle's speeds, and using his quirk like he was right now was exhausting all his reserves. Even when using One For All at 20% power, he couldn't match the speed and finesse of this "gentle" criminal. Trying to push himself up, he was forced back down by a hard boot.

"I'm sorry my boy, but I'm afraid we must conclude this encounter. If you will excuse me, I must be going now." The man said smoothly, looking down at the fallen boy. Stomping him down once for good measure, Gentle left Izuku laying in the dirt as he turned around.

"WAIT!"

Gentle turned around at the sound of the boy's voice.

"Please, I'm begging you. Please don't ruin this day for them, please don't ruin this day for _her."_ The desperation in his voice was evident. He wasn't just fighting for himself, but for others too. Even if it was something as mundane as a school festival.

"Your morals and fighting spirit are commendable. This has been one of the greatest fights I have ever experienced, but this is the end. Farewell." It was then that he was socked upside the jaw with a wooden fist. Bursting from the undergrowth, Kamui Woods blasted out by propelling himself with vines before cocking his fist back and slamming it into Gentle's goatee. Sliding to a stop behind the tumbling criminal, Kamui threw one of his batons, striking Gentle in the back of his head, dazing him. Stumbling forwards, he had unknowingly fallen right into Twice's strike zone. Charging forwards, Twice grappled up to a tree branch and leapt off, giving him a burst of height and speed. Landing on one of Gentle's air bubble, Jin let it contract before leaping off of that and landing right behind Gentle, swiping his leg down at the same time. His heel connected with the criminal's head, and he hit the dirt. Jin wasted no time in jumping on the downed form and holding him down, shoving a loaded shocker shell into Gentle's spine.

"Gentlemen, we got him." He said smirking.

"Huh, I didn't think that would work," Kamui said, helping a sore Midoriya to his feet. "I thought you would end up face planting and committing seppuku or something like that."

"What do you mean, my plans always work." Twice shot back, driving his gauntlet deeper into Gentle's back. "Now come on, security will be here in a few minutes."

Dragging Gentle to his feet, Twice forced him towards the edge of the clearing.

"Isn't that Twice from the League of Villains? What's he doing here?" The dazed Midoriya choked out, shaking the dizziness from his eyes.

"Relax kid, he's with me," Kamui said, helping Midoriya regain his balance. "He's been doing good guy stuff."

* * *

Little did the heroes know, but there was another person watching from the bushes of the clearing. It was a short pink-haired girl, dressed in some extravagant outfit holding a pistol. With shaking hands, she levelled it at Jin and pulled the trigger.

* * *

Jin heard the bang moments before he felt it. There was a sharp pain in his back as he let go of Gentle and hit the ground hard. His suit had protected him, but the sharp pain had thrown him off.

"You gave a kid a gun?!" He yelled from the ground as Gentle was helped up by his accomplice.

"I apologize gentlemen, but I believe there's no other way to go about this," Gentle said, stumbling back onto both of his feet.

"Mr. Gentle… are you sure?" The girl who shot Jin looked up at the criminal expectantly, who nodded.

"Oh God is this one of those… 'stans' or whatever the hell they are?" Jin groaned. "I swear, you would probably gobble up everything this guy spits out. Even if he burped into a mic for 45 minutes, you'd probably watch it." Nobody said anything because they knew he was probably right.

"Don't you underestimate my love for Gentle!" The girl yelled and within moments the two of them were engulfed in a pink aura.

"Oh no, now some creepy lolicon relationship? You have got to be fu-" Jin barely got that sentence out before he was blown back by a jacked-up Gentle.

"A strength enhancer? She must be using her emotions to multiply his quirk's power!" Deku quickly analyzed.

"Yeah, I can tell kid!" Jin growled as he pulled himself to his feet. "Kamui, let's do this thing!"

"Right behind you!" The two dashed forward in time with each other. This was a common move they used to restrain enemies in a quick and easy fashion. Using his vines, Kamui quickly pulled himself ahead of Jin and grabbed at Gentle's feet. But one thing they didn't anticipate was how fast he moved. There was a burst of air as the man propelled himself back across the clearing. It didn't take Twice long to realize that this man's quirk was the total manipulation of air, and the effects of the other's had made it even stronger. Raising his hands, Gentle seemed to make a swirling motion before slamming his hands together. Kamui didn't care and boosted himself right at gentle before engaging him in hand-to-hand combat. Standing back, Deku was too wounded to do much. He was spent entirely, so the most he could do was observe. Then he noticed it. When Gentle swirled his arms, he was really gathering enough air to create a mass vacuum. Something like this would end up creating a lot of his air bubbles, which he could control at will. And if he could control their pressure, then when they popped…

...they would have the equivalent force of a landmine.

"GET BACK! THAT WHOLE AREA IS RIGGED!" He could only think of yelling at that moment, but in hindsight, that probably wasn't that good of an idea when Gentle blasted him in the stomach with an air bubble.

"Quiet, you. You've already ruined my scene enough times."

"Oi! The kid's had enough, hasn't he?" Kamui yelled, lashing out with a whip that was easily blocked by another bubble.

"Evidently, not enough."

Meanwhile, Jin took a tentative step back but then realized that if this whole airspace was rigged, he was probably already balls-deep in this goulash. If the kid was right, then he was walking into a minefield of air bubbles that would rip him apart. Looking around the airspace, there was much he could see besides the faint shimmers of the bubbles, but there wasn't anything substantial to mark their positions. If anything, they were probably moving on random vectors within that area of space. He couldn't do anything if he couldn't sense them. So basically, he was stuck. He could only watch as Kamui and Gentle traded blows. While Kamui had the skill advantage, in terms of raw power and speed at this point, Gentle had the upper hand. There were thundering booms as blows were traded and punches and kicks sent back and forth between the two. Going at Gentle with another rush of attacks, starting it off with a high kick. Leaning back and lashing out, he used his momentum to drive his opposite knee up towards Gentle's face. The man in question quickly sidestepped and tried to overwhelm the hero with a hard punch, but the attack was bypassed and quickly countered when Kamui shifted over to the side and jabbed his fist into Gentle's face. Seemingly unfazed by this, the criminal let loose a series of haymakers, two lefts and a right, all three of them whiffs. Taking the next turn in the fight, Kamui threw a left hook followed by a right jab and then, using his quirk, formed a solid wood hammer before slamming it down towards his head, before it was deflected by a perfectly placed air bubble.

 _This fight is getting nowhere! I have to get out of this air space!_ Jin thought to himself angrily as he examined his prison of oxygen. That's when it hit him. Prison of _oxygen._ Easy solution here. Gentle can't control the oxygen in the air if there isn't any and the easiest way to get rid of oxygen? Burn it. When burned away, oxygen is reduced to ozone, and one way to get that is by submitting it to an electrical shock. Quickly loading several shocker shells into his gauntlets, he proceeded to discharge them in a wild fashion around him. Several of the bubbles popped from just the shock but he began to smell the unsettlingly familiar scent of ozone. He was pushing his quirk to create this many shocker shells, but it was working. Soon, the oxygen in the airspace had been all but completely burnt away. That's when it occurred to Jin that he couldn't breathe ozone. In fact, he was pretty sure ozone was poisonous to humans, but it wouldn't matter anyway. He was almost done. With the last of the bubbles popping due to lack of oxygen to keep them sustained, Jin decided to end this fight fast. Dashing across the clearing to reach Kamui and Gentle.

Raising his fist, his gauntlet made shocking contact with Gentle's face and blew him back. Rushing towards the dazed criminal, Jin delivered a series of jabs to the face and chest before ducking as he watched with satisfaction as Kamui flew over his head and threw a hard kick that connected with Gentle's nose, which spurted blood like a fountain. Landing next to Jin, Kamui masterfully snaked a wood whip around Gentle's feeble attempt at a block and jabbed him in the neck before proceeding to lash him in the stomach, throwing him back and stunning him. In his strengthened state, he still managed to hold his footing, but it wasn't much, as he was staggering back and forth. Looking over to Kamui, Jin smirked when he noticed that he was preparing for the same thing. Moving as one, the two of them took a few steps forward before delivering a single knockout blow in the form of an uppercut. The blow sent Gentle flying a foot off the ground and back across the clearing before he hit the ground with a crunch, a little cloud of dust rising from where he landed.

"Boom." The two of them shared a fist bump. "AND THAT'S WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU DO LOLICON, MOTHERFU-" Jin found himself being blown back once again.

"If I will be going down, at least I can get the last word in," Gentle muttered before slipping into unconsciousness.

"Cheeky bastard," Jin grunted as Kamui helped him to his feet. "Hate it when the crooks get an attitude." Kamui sweatdropped at this.

"You do realize what you did for a living before all of this, right?"

"..."

"..."

"... Shit, you got me there."

The whole time Deku sat there, watching the two heroes goof off.

"I-I'm still here, you know?" He spoke up skittishly.

"Heh, sorry kid. Let's get this guy to security." Kamui nodded in his direction. "Nice job, by the way. That was a good fight. Real good fight."

"Wait a minute, where's the girl? The weird loli that he had with him?" Jin asked, looking around.

…Nowhere.

"Let's just bring in the perp and be done with it. C'mon fellas, the security's on their way right no-" And for the 3rd time that day, Jin was cut off, but not but physical force, but by an explosion in the distance. The sounds of screams could be heard, creeping in across the landscape like a less-than-pleasant breeze.

"What the hell is going on over there?" Muttered Kamui as he ran for the fairgrounds. Subconsciously, both he and Jin knew what was going on. Before Kamui could make it out of the clearing, he was jumped by a man in a dark cloak, wearing a familiar mask. He exuded a dark aura from him, an aura of dread. Of fear. Crippling fear.

"Tying up loose ends." Said Masque, as a large serpent of random objects coiled up behind him.

"Oh no."

* * *

 **Alright, we're coming up on the last planned leg for the story. I'll try to get this updated more than I am currently. Might be a false hope, but I'm gonna try! Sorry if anything turns out ham-fisted and all, my writing still isn't that good yet, so I'll try on flushing things out more. Character dialogue really isn't my strong suit, so that's something I might have to take another month-long break to work on. Anyways, I'll see you all later. I have to go camping now :P**


	9. Around again we'll go

**Well, I hate to do this a second time, but it looks another one bites the dust.**

 **As much as I love this story, this one needs a rewrite. Terribly.**

 **Plot pacing is awkward, yeah, but there's one major issue with Coming Around Again. Twice's quirk. In the "One Bad Day" chapter where Twice, once again, gets a character focus, we see him use his quirk in ways that he can't in my story. You see, I was under the impression that Twice's Double revolved around the same premise as Momo's, where the creations are solid. Evidently, I was wrong. Twice specifically states that. So, as much as I love head-canons, I can't bring myself to using a quirk so out of form and character.**

 **I'm not giving up on this one, I love Twice, and I think I can do him justice.**

 **But this is going to need some more time to flesh out. Not to mention the fact that my writing when I first started this was merely in its infancy. Now, I feel like I can write it better with my more mature style of writing.**

 **Once again, I'm sorry for pulling this one, but I'm determined to do Twice justice.**

 **Thanks,**

 **Healthcare.**


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